My F/HJ45 rebuild thread (1 Viewer)

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Vossie

#thecrazycruiserman
Joined
Sep 9, 2013
Threads
57
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1,407
Location
Harare, Zimbabwe
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Hi all,

so i think its time that I start recording my own build of my 40 :bounce:

maybe a lil backround info is in order here. sorry for lack of tech, but its coming...

I bought my 40 on Oct 25th, 2010. at the time i was an appi with no money and a love for all things LC. when i saw her at a local lot for the shockingly low price of US$4000, i knew that there must be something wrong. but, with all caution to the wind and more of a "I can fix that" attitude than good sense, i bought her, managing to talk down the price all the way to $2900 :grinpimp:

I did have an uncle of mine check her out before the deed was done, a lil common sense coming through. he, a very experienced mechanic with the same love of LC's, pronounced the engine good with great and compression power, despite the copious amounts of white smoke bellowing from her exhaust. he assured me this would more than likely be a timing issue or at very worst, dirty injectors. i still like to remind him he once said that ;p

so, with title deeds and reg book in the glove box i set off down the road in my brand new second hand 40, straight back to my house to begin immidiate restoration of my new baby :)

i straight away went to stripping her down to the chassis...

2ighwl1.jpg


then took out her seats....

8yi14z.jpg


as you can see, this was not a pretty interior. :eek:

then off came the roof, the doors and wind screen....

2j41svk.jpg


then finally the tub, leaving me with a rolling chassis....

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2nkj8kg.jpg


it was a great relief to find no rust anywhere on the chassis, but i guess i have the awesome climate and weather of Zimbabwe to thank for that. :cool:

i then went to attacking the rolling chassis with blixem (a great local degreaser) and a high powered petrol pressure washer. it was great fun removing at least 20 years of dirt and grime from the old girl. :bounce:

i gave her a good coat of primer and several coats of chassis black. i would like to at this point state that my intention has always been to get her in perfect running order BEFORE adressing any cosmetics, hence the half job on the chassis paint. i was only really doing it to check for and remedy any rust that there might have been. i got lucky :hillbilly:

then i started to re-assemble. sorry for lack of photos for this section of build... :whoops:

when it came to wiring, being a heavy power technician (i had just qualified :D) i thought, once again, "I can fix that" :hmm: boy was i wrong. after ripping out all existing birds nests, i then proceeded to construct my own :doh:

so, off my baby went to a pro, a local auto sparky who proceeded to do a complete re-wire, every wire, lug and loom being brand new :) and because i was only a 18 year old 'Kid', he did it for me at a great price :D so thank you Steve.

more to come...;)
 
Did not notice your tires earlier... They are very desirable here with the fj25 crowd ... Are they 15" or 16"

i believe they are 16". will have to check when i get her back from the brake shop.


i wish... Woosung (never heard of em, they are what came with her) :rolleyes:

Can you get them new still? Do they have a dot stamp?

Thanks

the tires or the rims? the tires, yes, every shop in Zim carries that size. the rims, dont know. but i do know of an old 60 and 70 series with some on :hmm:

please pardon my ignorance, what is a dot stamp?
 
Phase 2

So, i now have a completely re-wired 40, including nice new LED tail lights :D so now i get to drive the 'flying tortoise' back home. it has been 4 months since i towed her in, so im pretty anxious :) (sorry for lack of photos here, i never thought about it at the time...)

the story behind the name? a friend of mine was at the same time building up a ford courior with a chev v8 in it. he one day compared my 40 to his ford, saying it was like the tortoise and the hair...
i was also at this time reading a book by Wilbur Smith, where the main character flew a yellow Sopworth Camel in ww1, which he dubbed the 'Flying tortoise'. i liked the name so much i decided to dub my 40 it :D

after bleeding her through and performing some general checks, i get her out on the road :cool: lots of power, but even more smoke :eek: still, driving her home with nothing but the tub on was great fun :grinpimp:

so i get her home, cloud of white smoke in tow, and begin reassembly. once again, im focusing on getting her running well before i touch the body or paint ;)

after i have her back together...

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could really feel the difference in the interior, although this is still far from how i want it.

so anyways, once i get her back together, i figure im gonna apply my "I can fix that" attitude to the issue of the copious ammounts of white smoke that bellows from my 2H.

remember what my uncle said? timing or valves or at worst, injectors.

so first we take off the tapet cover and ... oh :censor: ... theres sludge every where. this cant be good.

head off. :eek: :mad: :flush:

shes been heat seized. number 1 was non existant and 6 was only powered by inertia... despite the 'Power' and compression we all thought she had, shes in a bad way...

pistons out and crank out.... :mad::mad::mad:

main bearing's come out in peices... all six pistons have varying degrees of damage. this is really not looking good. and its definitely a problem that i cant solve by myself.... :bang:

to be continued...
 
It's all about bonding ... between man and machine...

At the end of all this the ties will be very strong Ross

:beer:
 
It's all about bonding ... between man and machine...

At the end of all this the ties will be very strong Ross

:beer:

they already are :) i love my 40 to death. wouldnt sell her for all the tea in china :D
 
Phase 3, 2H woes

so, i now have a whole bunch of 2H pieces lying in the back of the now reassembled 40, and im thinking, "what did i get myself into here?"

so i start pricing stuff. now Zim is not the cheapest place in earth for anything, and my first stop at a local company called Mr Cruiser was a real downer. they didnt have new liners (which were badly scored), pistons, bearings or even the head gasket. these guys are supposed to be the one stop shop for every thing cruiser :eek:

they do however have second hand pistons... $200 each. :eek: ouch... they can order every thing i need, but it will take up to 12 weeks and over $2600 to get it all... i nearly had a heart attack. i left there not very happy with life :frown:

then i went to a friend who owns a wholesale spares shop and bingo, he has most of my stuff, just need to wait 2 weeks for it to get transfered. :) and the best part is the price, for brand new pistons, rings, liners, bearings and gasket set, $585... i nearly had another heart attack, but this time a good one :bounce:

so 2 weeks later my spares arrive :D now all i need is some one to put back this motor for me. enter another good friend of mine with a lot of experience and who will do it for $600, a bargain when another mech wanted to charge me $1500....

work began in earnest, (im trying to find pics, i know they're somewhere :rolleyes: ) and pretty soon we have my 2h in top notch condition, a brand new second hand, running and back in the 40 :D

if i thought she had power before, well, theres a whole lot more now that i have 6 cylinders instead of 4 :cool: on gravel i can burnout a full 50 meters with all my new power :grinpimp:

but, we still have smoke. lots of it. looks like its going to be the injectors :bang:

more to come ;)
 
wow!!
$600 for reassembly of a 2H is CHEAP.
here in Canada, if you take a diesel to a rebuilders and drop it off, the going price is $1500 PER HOLE. a couple years back it was $1000 PER HOLE.
$100 per hole is really cheap. congrats.
Rebuild kit here is $1800 and you got yours for under $600 ... maybe i should move?
 
wow!!
$600 for reassembly of a 2H is CHEAP.
here in Canada, if you take a diesel to a rebuilders and drop it off, the going price is $1500 PER HOLE. a couple years back it was $1000 PER HOLE.
$100 per hole is really cheap. congrats.
Rebuild kit here is $1800 and you got yours for under $600 ... maybe i should move?

lol, i can thank alot of friends in the right markets for the price i paid ;) the piston liner kit was old ex stock that was being shipped back, so my mate gave it to me at cost price :D
 
I said WOAH!

it was at about this time that I landed a very nice job, re-wiring an entire factory that was to be set up in the packaging and printing industry. it was a nice job with good pay and i was to be onsite foreman with my own team of guys :D only problem was, i needed a car. and my hilux was not an option. :rolleyes:

enter my 45! :grinpimp: so she smoked a little and the brakes needed to be pumped in order to work. she ran, i loved her, and she would get the job done. problem solved :bounce:

so im driving the tortoise to work one morning, loaded to the nines with kit and crew. its just rained so braking distances are doubled and speed reduced. im stuck in traffic, and am driving into an intercection packed with other vehicles, about to make a right turn, when POP! i just lost all brakes, and im rolling into the other lane :eek:

i throw the 40 into 2nd and let out the clutch, the mighty 2H slowing me very quickly due to its immense compression. then i kill the engine and let it bring me to a complete stop, right in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in Harare. :eek: i quickly fire her back up, then make the turn when i get a gap. if you werent in the vehicle, then you would never have known i just lost all brakes. my guys on the back however, did :grinpimp:

once on the straight again i pull her off the road and quickly determine the problem... ive just blown a slave cylinder and all my fluid is AWOL. great :bang: looks like its back to the garage :hmm:

to be continued ;)
 
it was at about this time that I landed a very nice job, re-wiring an entire factory that was to be set up in the packaging and printing industry. it was a nice job with good pay and i was to be onsite foreman with my own team of guys :D only problem was, i needed a car. and my hilux was not an option. :rolleyes:

enter my 45! :grinpimp: so she smoked a little and the brakes needed to be pumped in order to work. she ran, i loved her, and she would get the job done. problem solved :bounce:

so im driving the tortoise to work one morning, loaded to the nines with kit and crew. its just rained so braking distances are doubled and speed reduced. im stuck in traffic, and am driving into an intercection packed with other vehicles, about to make a right turn, when POP! i just lost all brakes, and im rolling into the other lane :eek:

i throw the 40 into 2nd and let out the clutch, the mighty 2H slowing me very quickly due to its immense compression. then i kill the engine and let it bring me to a complete stop, right in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in Harare. :eek: i quickly fire her back up, then make the turn when i get a gap. if you werent in the vehicle, then you would never have known i just lost all brakes. my guys on the back however, did :grinpimp:

once on the straight again i pull her off the road and quickly determine the problem... ive just blown a slave cylinder and all my fluid is AWOL. great :bang: looks like its back to the garage :hmm:

to be continued ;)

"Sh#t! The boss doesn't value our lives! He nearly killed us on our way to work! I'll bet he'll liven up the switch boards while we're still working on them!"

:lol:
 
"Sh#t! The boss doesn't value our lives! He nearly killed us on our way to work! I'll bet he'll liven up the switch boards while we're still working on them!"

:lol:

LOL :lol: well, they never said much about it, other than a thank you to me after wards for not going into the back of anything :rolleyes:
 
Heart Attack

so after a very hair rising drive home (after rush hour traffic had died down), i get the tortoise back home and into the garage.

and there she sat for the better part of 3 months :eek:

truth be told, i just didnt have the money to get either the injectors or the brakes seen to. i would go out every day and tinker on small stuff, but i just couldnt do anything worth while due to lack of funds. needless to say i was majorly bummed. :frown:

then one day, i came to the garage, opened the door and nearly feinted from what i saw..... NOTHING! the garage was empty, my 40 gone!!! :eek:

no body in my family could give me any answers, but all were hiding something. i knew they were up to something with my 40, but no one would even give me a hint. for two weeks i was left in the dark...

then i stumbled across an invoice in the glove box of the Hilux, an invoice for one TLC 40 series that had been dropped off at Jimmy's Diesel, an injector shop in town. the sneeky bastards! they had booked in the tortoise with out me knowing a thing :p

more to come....
 
into the present

So this just about brings us back to the present day.

when i was finally told where my 40 was and what was being done to her, i played along and acted all excited :p
at Jimmy's diesel, on the show room floor was the Tortoise, waiting for me to come and get her. i held my breath as ol' Jimmy himself did the honors, and for the first time in maybe 3 months the 2H was fired up. and low and behold, NO SMOKE! :D

so, thank you Jimmy and all you guys at JDS, you guys rock! the Tortoise and i thank you greatly :D

after the obligitory thank yous and rounds of 'cheers boet', i backed the Tortoise out of the shop and aimed her down the road, homeward bound, and still no brakes :grinpimp:

a slow ride home via all the back streets was in order, and i loved every second of having the old girl back on the road. nothing makes a man smile more than riding in his 40 :grinpimp:

once home, a nice pressure wash was in order, and then it was straight off to a very good friend of mine who lives just down the road, and runs a mechanic shop from out of his garage.

Mickey is perhaps the most talented person i have ever met when it comes to working with his hands. he can weld like a pro, panel beat like he invented it, and even cut his own hair :D the guy is a legend and i had the honor of him working on my brakes.

now, the Tortoise stops on a dime. she blows no smoke, well, non that you wouldnt expect from a 4L straight 6 naturally aspirated diesel with 320,000Km on the odo :grinpimp:

and now, shes my daily driver :)

more to come
 
The doner 60

So, after using the tortoise as my daily driver for the better part of two months, i finally get an answer from my uncle who i have been hounding for a while...

bit of a back story: im a pure bred farm boy, and despite all the various political stories that surround Zimbabwe, the farm is still with the family, well, at least some of it is :)

on said farm lie the wrecks of not one, but three cruisers, one 60, and 2x 70 series. now my one cuz has dibs on the best 70 of the lot, but hasnt done anything more than move body parts around the workshop for the past 8 years. but every time i mention it to him or my uncle, i get put down and the tub goes for another spin around the work shop before coming to rest once more at the back. oh well.

what i wouldnt do to get my hands on that 70. and over the years i have tried. but since i acquired my own 40, that ol 60 and beat down 70 (the other one) look like they might be willing to donate to the cause :grinpimp:

so after asking my uncle, who truth be told is the most generous person on this planet, if i could have the ol engineless 60 and 70, i get shot down... by my cuz. :eek: yep, the same one who does nothing more than move his around every 6 months. apparently, he wants the 60 for parts.

so, a bit bummed out, i resign myself to the fact that im just gonna have to by my own 60 PS box and kit to put into the tortoise.

fast forward to the present day, and guess what, my uncle gives me the go ahead... the 60 is mine! :D

i drive down to the farm the very next day, and begin stripping the 60 of anything that i think i may have use for:

front axel
rear axel
rear prop shaft
PS box
complete steering assembly
front seats
steering column
steering wheel
hand brake
front springs
fuel tank
transfer stick rubber boot (man how i searched for one of these :D )

so with all this kit on the back of my hilux, i set off back home, intent on doing some major work to the tortoise this december.

oh well girl, your off the road again, but this time its for a good reason :D :steer:

more to come
 

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